Are you a person who has World Cup fever or are you the person completely turned off by the mentions of three games a day, the drama of a loss or win, and block all mentions of World Cup in your social networks? If you are in the latter category, I apologize. This post is not meant to latch onto real time events, but to convey a true observation.

Last week, I was commuting from my company headquarters in Hartford, Conneticut to my home in Boston. The timing of the drive could not have been worse. I was stuck in traffic during the opening match of the World Cup. Surely I would be able to find a radio station live broadcasting the match? No such luck. I scanned the stations for ten minutes before I was so scattered and frustrated by the jumping channels that I gave up the search. I knew there were several Internet streaming options, but I was driving in an area with little to no signal.

One last attempt to find a radio station broadcasting the live match was a success. This channel was not an English speaking channel, but a Spanish speaking broadcast. I recognized the rapid play-by-play tone of voice. Despite the language barrier, I strived to tune in and recognize player names and determine context of conversation based on the cadence of the broadcaster's voice.

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!

I understood.

Now keep in mind, I am trying to be extremely attentive while listening to the broadcast….and driving. I survived. As did others on the road, but I do not recommend this listening refresh exercise if you are driving.

Listening to the World Cup broadcast in a different language forced me to listen for keywords, phrases, and meaning hidden in layers of cadence. This was the best match I have listened to because I was completely turned in. Funny enough, I recreated the experience by watching live World Cup broadcasts in German because I was on holiday in Germany for the first several days of this event. Language is not a barrier, but a gateway to understanding all of the elements of voice and how we can become better passive listeners. Ultimately, by strengthening passive listening skills, we will become more comfortable expanding our role in active listening.

(My first post using Blogsy. Forgive the simple style of post. I am learning the app interface!)

Kudos to my fellow community manager, Teresa Basich, for the title of this post. In fact, while I am saying thank you, I want to take a moment and thank the team of great community managers I work with at Radian6: Teresa Basich, Gen Coates, Trish Forant, and Melanie Thompson. All of us are extremely opinionated and these ladies inspire me to be at the top of my game and not become lost in a status quo.

Last month, around the time of Community Manager Appreciation Day, a barrage of community management posts were published. Part of me was extremely excited because the (evolved) career path I had chosen was gaining traction, but disappointed that the buzz still seemed to be superficial. The position seemed to give way to another clique. Another Millennial-created position. A mere novelty instead of a discipline.

Then today, I came across a post titled, Are Community Managers Becoming Obsolete? Really? Really? Forgive me, but the position (in the world post-social media) has not been around for that long of a time and already we are jumping ship or renaming? Then, there are those of us who do not see this position as anything new, but an evolved extension of what we were already doing in the public/community relations industry, in reflection of our (and organization’s) social media maturity.

It is not me to dictate what I think the community manager job description should be, but to define through action as I have done since I adopted the title in 2006. Since then, it has become more than a role, but a discipline to be developed within myself, team members, and integrated into the very fabric of the enterprise. Community management became more about internal education and nourishment for a stronger and more dynamic external community engagement.

Over the past five years, I have broken, built and broken again, the role of a community manager in my former Federal Government position and again, as part of a team at Radian6. Community managers wear a plethora of hats these days, from community ambassador to storyteller and back again. There is no one job responsibility or hat. Each organization has to find the right mix and balance of hats a community manager must wear, but don’t be mistaken…one hat does not define the species. Similar to a chameleon, a community manager does not change colors or hats to blend in, but as an act of communication.

The Nine Hats (and Counting) of Community Management

Ambassador: Stewards the issues, pain points, needs, wants, and general feedback of the overall community of customers, prospects, fans, and vendors, inside the walls of the organization.

Storyteller: Shares the most relevant and meaningful stories of community members with other community members and within company walls.

Poster Child: Represents brand message, promise, tone, and experience to the core; The moving, dynamic face of the organization’s brand and everything it represents.

Switchboard Operator: Fields direct comments, questions, complaints, and support issues to the right departments within the organization for response and handling.

Caretaker: Pays attention to the health of the community by collecting stats and data to learn more about the successes, potential problems, growth, and movement of the community; Makes informed decisions as to where to invest energy, time, and resources next; and takes steps to directly handle any existing problems.

Content Creator/Curator: Develops and aggregates content and programs to help further community education in portable, easy to digest chunks of knowledge for organization and community members to use and share.

Interpreter: Makes sense of external conversations for business use; Reads between the lines of community interactions, and hones in on community member concerns and big-picture ideas, even when they’re not spelled out clearly.

Connector: Identifies strong potential connections within community and makes introductions and facilitates community relationships that are mutually beneficial to those involved.

As an organization matures, so does the community management responsibilities. We are in a constant state of evolution. Attempting to land on one definition or harbor on why organizations are not doing things like you, only leads to standard practices…where everyone is exactly the same and vanilla. No business wants that for itself. Don’t miss the bigger picture: community management is not about the person or the bodies on the team, but integrating these disciplines across the organization. Everyone in your organization has the potential to be a community manager.

So, while it is great to get together with others juggling these same hats and pat ourselves on the back, there is much more work to be done by educating the facilitation of these responsibilities within organizations. Instead of an open bar or a raffle, we need to share stories, unveil our scars, and surround ourselves with those of differing perspectives/strategies. We can become smarter together, but we can’t keep rushing off to rename or predict life span until we are practicing and living the discipline of two-way communication.

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About the Author

By day, Lauren 'L' Vargas is a digital dragon wrangler assisting companies with their community and communication strategies. Vargas has experience with digital transformation in regulated industry (including: federal government, health care / insurance, and financial services). Vargas enables organizations to engage with the communities they serve by fostering authentic relationships built on trust and dynamic dialogue.